Drum transporter

ABSTRACT

Apparatus for transporting an object such as a drum or the like employs means for lifting the drum into a transporting position under a substantial mechanical advantage. A carriage is configured to partially surround the drum and the carriage is in three-point contact with the supporting surface. The two points at the side of the drum are located over center to assure that the weight of the drum will be concentrated on the carriage. A pair of upright supports on the carriage mount a pair of arms which are movable into engagement with the drum by a lever arm coupled with the arms. Without tilting the drum or moving it in any way the arms may be moved to grip the drum and then lift it off the surface on which it is disposed. A wheel located at each point of contact of the apparatus with the surface accommodates easy movement of the apparatus with the object supported thereby, over the surface.

United States Patent 1191 Trapp 1451 Sept. 25, 1973 DRUM TRANSPORTERHarold D. Trapp, 915 Tulane Ave., Salina, Kans. 67401 [22] Filed: Feb.14, 1972 [21] Appl. N0.: 225,768

[76] Inventor:

[52] US. Cl. 214/390, 214/384 Rosenzweig Koontz Primary ExaminerAlbertJ. Makay Attorney-Bradley and Wharton ABSTRACT Apparatus fortransporting an object such as a drum or the like employs means forlifting the drum into a transporting position under a substantialmechanical advantage. A carriage isconfigured to partially surround thedrum and the carriage is in three-point contact with the supportingsurface. The two points at the side of the drum are located over centerto assure that the weight of the drum will be concentrated on thecarriage. A pair of upright supports on the carriage mount a pair ofarms which are movable into engagement with the drum by a lever armcoupled with'the arms. Without tilting the drum or moving it in any waythe arms may be moved to grip the drum and then lift it off the surfaceon which it is disposed. A wheel located at each point of contact of theapparatus with the'surface accommodates easy movement of the apparatuswith the object supported thereby, over the surface.

6 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures DRUM TRANSPORTER This invention relates toapparatus for moving barrels or the like and, more particularly, to ahand truck for moving objects without requiring the object to be tiltedor otherwise moved for use of the hand truck.

Hand trucks have long been utilized for moving barrels, boxes and otherobjects from one location to another. A major shortcoming of previoushand trucks has been the need to tilt the object which is to be moved toallow the-supporting platform of the hand truck to slip under theobject. Once this has been done, the object must again be tilted ontothe hand truck to place it in a transporting position. With objects ofany size or weight this tilting movement is inconvenient and timeconsuming. With heavier objects such as a 55 gallon drum the need totilt the drum before it can be moved is extremely difficult and in somecases requires two persons to accomplish loading of the drum onto thehand truck. Once the drum is loaded, substantialefiort must be exertedby the person to hold the drum as it istransported on the truck. Whenthedrumis to be removed from the truck it is again" necessary to tilt thedrum to allow the hand truck to be removed from-beneath it. Stillanother disadvantage of prior hand'trucks has been the fact thatbecausethey do'not positively grip the object being moved, butinstead theobject normally lies in a shallow cradle, there is always the dangerthat if the hand truck should'strike an uneven surface the object maybecome dislodged and fall fromthe hand truck.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide apparatusfor transporting adrum or the like which does not require tilting of thedrum for either pick-up or set-down operation; I Afurther object of theinvention is' to provide apparatus for moving objects over a surfacewherein the object may be set down by simply releasing the leveragehandle without the need to operate any releasing mech anism or removethe apparatus from beneath the obect.

It is also an important aim of this invention to provide a hand truckfor moving objects wherein the object to be moved is lifted under asubstantial mechanical advantage thus requiring expenditure of a minimumamount of work to move the object.

It is also one of the objectives of my invention to provide a hand truckfor moving drums or the like wherein a pair of arms positively grip thedrum and hold it when it is being moved to preclude any danger of thedrum becoming dislodged from the truck.

It is also an aim of this invention to provide a hand truck for movingobjects wherein the object is gripped and lifted in a single continuousdownward movement of a lever arm.

Another one of the aimsof this invention is to provide apparatus formoving objects such as drums or the like wherein the apparatus is easilyadapted to accommodate drums of different sizes.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of the hand truck apparatus of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the apparatus of FIGS. 1 and 2 illustratingthe manner in which a cylindrical drum is grasped by the lifting arms ofthe apparatus;

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view, similar to FIG. 1, with a drumpositioned for movement by the hand truck apparatus of the invention,the drum preferably being raised slightly from the floor; and

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary detail view of the lifting arms andtheir associated structure.

Referring initially to FIGS. 1 and 2, the hand truck apparatus of thepresent invention is designated generally by the numeral 10 and includesa carriage 12 which may be of a generally semicircular configuration tocomplement the configuration of a cylindrical object to be moved by theapparatus. Carriage 12 is comprised of a pair of upright supports whichmay be formed from a pair of angle irons 14 disposed in aligned, spacedapart relationship. At the lowermost ends of each of the angle irons 14a plate 16 extends outwardly in spaced relationship to the angle iron todefine a yoke structure which mounts a wheel and axle assembly 18.

Extending between angle irons 14 in a generally semicircularconfiguration is a structural member comprised of upper and lowerarcuate elements 20, an integral vertical brace 22 and a pair of arcuatecomponents 24 which extend transversely from upper element 20 to lowerelement 20. Attached to the rear of the carriage 12 is a bracket 26which mounts a caster wheel assembly 28 in a position lying in a planeintermediate the wheel and axle assemblies 18 and in spacedrelationship'to the latter. Caster wheel assembly 28 is preferablymounted upon a threaded screw (not shown) for adjustment of the verticalheight of the wheel assembly.

Referring additionally'to FIGS. 3-5, it is seen that each of the angleirons 14 has a sleeve 30 on the outside thereof for mounting a pair ofgripping arms 32. Each of the arms 32 comprises a vertical segment 34that is received within a respective sleeve 30 and a horizontal segment36 which may be of generally arcuate configuration for complementing theconfiguration of an object such as a drum 38 to be moved by theapparatus. Each of the angle irons 14 has a cutawayarea 40 approximatelymidway along its length and a pair of flanges 42 which are integral withthe angle irons 14 present a pair of camming surfaces 44 in alignmentwith the cutaway areas 40 and extending away from an adjacent arm. Eachof the camming surfaces 44 merges into a vertically disposed camfollower surface 46 presented by one face of each of the angle irons 14.Received within each of the cutaway areas 40 is a projection 48extending laterally from the vertical segment of each of the arms 32 topresent a camming means which rides along surfaces 44 and 46.

Each of the upright angle iron supports 14 also includes a laterallyextending plate 50 for mounting a leverage structure 52. Leveragestructure 52 includes a pair of elongated lever elements 54 which areinterconnected at their ends distal from carriage 12 by a rigidtransversely extending handlebar 56. At the ends opposite bar 56 each ofthe elements is rigidly secured to a pivot plate 58 which pivotallymounts the leverage structure on plates 50. A pair of linkage rods 60coupled with each plate 58 and a respective block 48 couple leverelements 54 with arms 32.

When an object such as drum 38 is to be moved over a surface, apparatus10 is moved into partially surrounding relationship to the drum asillustrated in FIG. 4. Because of the complemental configuration ofcarriage l2 angle iron supports 14 may be moved to a position slightlybeyond the center of gravity of drum 38 to assure that the weight of thedrum will be concentrated on apparatus 10. The three-point contact ofapparatus with the supporting surface allows drum 38 to be picked upwithout the need to tilt or otherwise move the drum. To this end,handlebar 56 is grasped by an operator and moved from the inclinedposition illustrated in FIG. 1 downwardly. This raises arms 32 by virtueof linkage rods 60 coupled with the arms. As arms 32 are raised, cammingmeans 48 moves along surface 44 to cause the arms to move into grippingengagement with the drum. Once the drum has been firmly gripped by thearms a continued downward movement of handlebar 56 by the operator willmove camming means 48 along follower surface 46 to raise the drumvertically off the surface upon which it is disposed. Because of thesubstantial mechanical advantage obtained through leverage structure 52,very little effort is required on the part of the operator to achievelifting of the drum. Once the drum has been lifted off the surface itsweight is supported by wheels 18 and 28 and the drum' is easily movedover the surface to another location. If it is necessary to stopmovement of the drum at any point, handle 52 is raised to allow drum 38to move, under its own weight, back onto the supporting surface. Thusthe drum is essentially automatically released without the need foroperating any mechanism and can be temporarily deposited at any locationwithout the need to set a brake on hand truck apparatus 10. Manifestly,there is no need to tilt drum 38 either for loading or unloadingpurposes. Movement of objects such as a drum 38 is made substantiallyeasier with apparatus 10 and the moving operation is greatly expeditedbecause of the time savings which can be realized when the apparatus isused.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the constructionof carriage 12 could easily be modified to allow the height of wheelassemblies 18 to be varied if this is desired for accommodating barrelsof different sizes.

While the invention has been described with particular reference to acylindrical drum, it will be appreciated that apparatus 10 could bemodified to handle other objects of different configurations. Tothisend, the same advantages attendant to the embodiment of the inventionherein described may be employed without departing from the scope of theinvention.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and desiredto be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. Apparatus for moving an object over a surface upon which the objectis disposed, said apparatus comprising:

a carriage adapted to be moved into partially surrounding relationshipto the object,

said carriage comprising first and second spaced apart upright supportsand having three-point contact with the surface, there being wheel meansdisposed at the lowermost end of each of said upright supports forengagement with the surface at two of said points, each of said supportshaving a camming surface; first and second arms coupled with said firstand second supports, respectively, each arm including camming meansengageable with a corresponding camming surface on an upright supportwhen the arm is raised whereby to move the arm into gripping engagementwith the object as the camming means moves along the camming surface;and

leverage means coupled with said first and second arms for moving thelatter into engagement with said object,

said leverage means operable to lift said arms with the object heldtherebetween off said surface whereby the weight of said object istransferred to said wheel means to permit movement of the object overthe surface.

2. The invention of claim 1, wherein each of said upright supports isprovided with a cutaway area, each of said surfaces being disposed inalignment with said area and extending away from the arm mounted on thesup port, said camming means comprising a tongue extending through saidarea into engagement with the surface.

3. The invention of claim 1, wherein each of said camming surfacesmerges into a vertical cam follower surface whereby subsequent togripping said object said arms are guided upwardly in a vertical planeby movement of the camming means over said cam follower surface.

4. The invention of claim 1, wherein said leverage means comprises afirst elongated lever element pivotally mounted on one of said supports,a second elongated lever element pivotally mounted on the other of saidsupports, first linkage means for coupling one of said arms with saidfirst element, second linkage means for coupling the other of said armswith said second element, and connecting means rigid with each of saidelements to assuremovement of the elements in unison.

5. The invention of claim 4, wherein said carriage comprises astructural member extending between said supports in complementalconfiguration to the object to be moved, and including third wheel meansmounted on said member at said third point of contact.

6. The invention of claim 4, wherein each of said arms is provided withan object-embracing segment of complemental configuration to theconfiguration of the object to be moved. i i 4

1. Apparatus for moving an object over a surface upon which the objectis disposed, said apparatus comprising: a carriage adapted to be movedinto partially surrounding relationship to the object, said carriagecomprising first and second spaced apart upright supports and havingthree-point contact with the surface, there being wheel means disposedat the lowermost end of each of said upright supports for engagementwith the surface at two of said points, each of said supports having acamming surface; first and second arms coupled with said first andsecond supports, respectively, each arm including camming meansengageable with a corresponding camming surface on an upright supportwhen the arm is raised whereby to move the arm into gripping engagementwith the object as the camming means moves along the camming surface;and leverage means coupled with said first and second arms for movingthe latter into engagement with said object, said leverage meansoperable to lift said arms with the object held therebetween off saidsurface whereby the weight of said object is transferred to said wheelmeans to permit movement of the object over the surface.
 2. Theinvention of claim 1, wherein each of said upright supports is providedwith a cutaway area, each of said surfaces being dispOsed in alignmentwith said area and extending away from the arm mounted on the support,said camming means comprising a tongue extending through said area intoengagement with the surface.
 3. The invention of claim 1, wherein eachof said camming surfaces merges into a vertical cam follower surfacewhereby subsequent to gripping said object said arms are guided upwardlyin a vertical plane by movement of the camming means over said camfollower surface.
 4. The invention of claim 1, wherein said leveragemeans comprises a first elongated lever element pivotally mounted on oneof said supports, a second elongated lever element pivotally mounted onthe other of said supports, first linkage means for coupling one of saidarms with said first element, second linkage means for coupling theother of said arms with said second element, and connecting means rigidwith each of said elements to assure movement of the elements in unison.5. The invention of claim 4, wherein said carriage comprises astructural member extending between said supports in complementalconfiguration to the object to be moved, and including third wheel meansmounted on said member at said third point of contact.
 6. The inventionof claim 4, wherein each of said arms is provided with anobject-embracing segment of complemental configuration to theconfiguration of the object to be moved.